Aviation captured the
attention of many of the great writers of the day, who traveled
to aviation exhibitions, rode in airplanes, and recorded their
reactions in words.

Franz Kafka, Italian poet and novelist Gabriele
D’Annunzio, and Futurist movement founder and leader
F. T. Marinetti were among the influential writers whose vision
of the future was shaped by the airplane. For them, the power
of flight was an irresistible theme.

Franz Kafka

In September 1909, Kafka attended an air meet
at Brescia, Italy, near Milan. He wrote a rich and textured
sketch of the event entitled, “The Aeroplanes at Brescia.”
In the brief essay, Kafka deftly captured the excitement,
symbolism, and emotional response to the airplane that swept
across Europe in 1908 and 1909.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Poet F. T. Marinetti, founder and leader of
the Futurist movement, also became obsessed with the airplane,
but the enthusiasm of the Futurists had a darker theme. They
saw the coming of a machine-driven civilization that would
divorce humanity from its past with unexpected and disturbing
consequences, although in their view this would ultimately
lead to a desirable end.

Gabriele D. Annunzio

Among the most celebrated writers of his day,
Gabriele D’Annunzio saw aviation as a messenger of a
new life, a new civilization. He and others like him, saw
spiritual transcendence through the conquest of the air. They
believed an aerial world would revitalize culture, refashion
laws and rituals, and provide an escape from the current reality
of life.

Critics of the aerial age

Not all writers and intellectuals looked favorably
upon the airplane. One of the sharpest critics was the Viennese
journalist Karl Kraus. He believed that while people were
clever enough to create sophisticated machines, they often
lacked the intelligence to use them properly. Now that the
air had been conquered, he feared the earth was condemned
to be bombarded. His prediction would in part come true.

Not everyone looked favorably upon the airplane. For some,
the grim reaper would rule the sky.

“Is he [Blériot]
going to go up in the air in this tiny thing? The first seafarers
had had it easier. They could practice first in pools, then
in ponds, then in streams, and not venture out to sea until
much later. For this man there is only sea.”
Franz Kafka
From “The Aeroplanes at Brescia”